Push a container image to GitHub Container Registry (ghcr.io) from a local machine using a PAT (classic), and link it to a repository
domain: ghcr.io · 10 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
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Documented steps
Create a personal access token (classic) with packages scopes: use the direct scopes URL https://github.com/settings/tokens/new?scopes=write:packages to select only write:packages (selecting write:packages in the normal UI also auto-selects the broad 'repo' scope, which GitHub recommends avoiding). Add read:packages to download/read metadata, and delete:packages if you need to delete images.
Save the token as an environment variable: export CR_PAT=YOUR_TOKEN
Authenticate to the registry: echo $CR_PAT | docker login ghcr.io -u USERNAME --password-stdin (expect 'Login Succeeded').
Build your image locally, e.g.: docker build -t hello_docker .
Tag the image for GHCR: docker tag <IMAGE_ID> ghcr.io/NAMESPACE/IMAGE_NAME:latest — replace NAMESPACE with the personal account or organization the image should be scoped to.
Push the image: docker push ghcr.io/NAMESPACE/IMAGE_NAME:latest (or a specific version tag, e.g. docker push ghcr.io/NAMESPACE/IMAGE_NAME:2.5).
When you first publish a package, its default visibility is private; change visibility/access via the package's access control settings if needed.
A CLI push does NOT automatically link the package to a repository, even if the namespace matches a repo name. To connect it, add a Dockerfile label before publishing: LABEL org.opencontainers.image.source=https://github.com/OWNER/REPO (also supports org.opencontainers.image.description and org.opencontainers.image.licenses), or connect the package to a repository afterward via the package settings.
After pushing, the package appears on the owning personal account's or organization's Packages page (and on the linked repository's page once connected).
GitHub Packages only supports authentication using a personal access token (classic) — the docs make no mention of fine-grained PAT support for GitHub Packages/GHCR; use a classic PAT.
Image and tag names must resolve to lowercase; GitHub's own example workflow explicitly lowercases the image reference with tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]' because values like the repository owner/name can contain uppercase letters that Docker will reject in a repository name.
Selecting the write:packages scope in the token-creation UI also auto-selects the broad 'repo' scope by default; use the direct URL (?scopes=write:packages) to avoid granting unnecessary repo access.
Default visibility on first publish is private; for a personal-account-scoped package, once you make it public you cannot make it private again.
A CLI docker push never auto-links the image to a repository, even when the namespace matches an existing repo name — you must add the org.opencontainers.image.source label or connect the package manually via its settings page.
The Container registry enforces a 10 GB size limit per layer and a 10 minute timeout limit for uploads.
Read/write/delete access require corresponding personal account permission in addition to the token scope (read:packages needs read permission, delete:packages needs at least read:packages + admin permission) — a correctly scoped token can still fail if the account lacks the underlying permission.
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